Sunday, October 26, 2014

Art Thoughts #1

An article in my ArtDaily newsletter
the other day, announced the upcoming auction of a Cy Twombly
painting, it stated that this masterpiece, which was housepaint on
board with chalk scribbles was expected to bring $35-$55 million US
dollars, and it caused me to ponder on the thoughts and
conversations I have about Art, the state of it, what it is and why
we do it etc.

Art is certainly not high on the agenda
of current governments, at least here in Australia, as Art programmes
and Art funding is progressively being cut or abandoned in place of
more useful and productive subjects that focus on the more important
matter of making money.

It does seem rather paradoxical that
while art is seemingly of little practical value to everyday life...
at the same time obscene amounts of money are being spent on art
which is out of all proportion to the quality of the work or actual
skill involved in producing it.

dictionary definitions of Art are ambiguous “the
quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic
principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary
significance”.

“Art has had a great number of
different functions throughout its history, making its purpose
difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does
not imply that the purpose of Art is "vague", but that it
has had many unique, different reasons for being created “

“Few modern scholars have been more
divided than Plato and Aristotle on the question concerning the
importance of art, with Aristotle strongly supporting art in general
and Plato generally being opposed to its relative importance”(Wikipedia)

The state of art today is a reflection
of the world that we live in, with its crazy values and priorities!

While many live in poverty, and
defenceless peoples are terrorised by evil men, we have become a
world of tribalistic hero worshippers paying fortunes for
entertainment. It seems that India can send a scientific rocket to
Mars for less than than it costs to produce a modern entertainment
film... or it could have bought a Rothko painting and had a few
thousand left over.

One of my thoughts on art is that it is
an essential part of the human experience, it is descriptive and
expressive, it is communication, it could bring beauty and
pleasure, awareness and thought and discussion.

Art is also work, and all work is
worthy of some reward, but that reward should not be out of
proportion with reality... and should not be the prime motivation for producing it..

In my opinion the works of Banksy, done in the form of graffiti, in public places for any to see, are better value than many daubings on boards... that the gullible are conned into spending a fortune for!